What is This I Believe?

 

What is This I Believe?

 

This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada, as well as in regular broadcasts on NPR. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

 

 

 

Featured Essays of the Week

Life Is Wonderfully Ridiculous
	Claude Knobler hoped to have a successful Hollywood career. Instead his resume lists working as a private eye, delivering singing telegrams in a gorilla suit, and being a stay-at-home dad. Knobler believes this ridiculous life is perfect for him. Click here for the full essay

 

 

 

 

 

 

	New Book from This I Believe
	“This I Believe II:  More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women” is available in bookstores nationwide.  The book and audiobook collect 75 essays from the NPR series. The Christian Science Monitor says the essayists featured in this volume “speak to the best in all of us and leave us in awe of the unheralded virtue that surrounds us every day.”
Buy Now!

 

 

 

Special Feature: Beliefs Born on the Battlefield

There is perhaps no time that belief is more emphatically tested, and acted upon, than in war. For this Veterans Day, five essayists who served in battle from World War I through the Iraq War tell how the violence of combat shaped their beliefs.

 

 

1. Constructing the House of Life
2. Toward a Far, Far Better World
3. The Dignity of Man
4. We Will See the Job Through
5. The Strength of a Man's Soul

 

Click here to read previous Special Features

 

 

 

 

 

The Essay Shuffle

A random selection of interesting essays that may inspire you to write your own.

1. Light Is Inspiration
2. It's the Journey, Not the Destination
3. To Claim All the Truths
4. Compassion, Heart, and Do Unto Others
5. The Playground of Ideas

 

• Search our essay database—Browse through the tens of thousands of other essays that have been submitted to This I Believe.

 

This I Believe en Espanol

 

A Spanish translation of our This I Believe book has just been published in Spain by Plataforma Editorial. It is translated by the noted translator Horacio Vázquez-Rial. To read an excerpt from the book, an essay by novelist Isabel Allende, please click here. To order the book, please click here.

 

 

 

 

 

The History of This I Believe

 

At the dawn of the Cold War and the height of McCarthyism, Americans from all walks of life bravely spoke their beliefs on the original This I Believe.   Now, a new documentary tells the fascinating history of the series hosted by Edward R. Murrow.  Listen to the program including essays by Harry Truman, Margaret Mead, William O. Douglas, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and other prominent figures of the day.